Samsung Galaxy S III Captures an Impressive First-Ever Sales Achievement

Canaccord Genuity tech analyst T. Michael Walkley has been reporting on smartphone sales trends and sales figures in the United States for some time, checking in with 50 to 100 retail outlets spread across the US for the past 10 years. He recently stated that it is his belief that the Samsung Galaxy S III is the first handset to outsell the iPhone 4S over any 30 day period where both devices are offered by the same retailers. If that is the case, that would be the first time that has happened since the iPhone 4S launched last October, and the widespread success of the Samsung Galaxy S III is certainly fuel for that argument.

Snagging the number one sales spot away from Apple is no mean feat, and Walkley stated that his research shows weakness for the smartphone manufacturers HTC, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and Nokia, while Samsung and Apple continue to show strong sales support. He also pointed out that part of that sales success allowing the Samsung Galaxy S III to surpass the Apple iPhone 4S had to do with Apple devotees awaiting the release of the iPhone 5. And that very well could be the case, as the Friday launch of the iPhone 5 in the United States was met by long lines and overnight camping out in the hopes of scoring one of the first new Apple iPhones available.

The Samsung Galaxy S III 4G LTE is a globally popular device, and is the most recent iteration of a Galaxy handset, a line which has been extremely popular and successful for Samsung. That smartphone launched on July 12 on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE system in the United States, and offers a large high-resolution screen, Near Field Communications (NFC) wireless support out-of-the-box, the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) operating system and high resolution video capture. NFC connectivity out-of-the-box means support for wireless retail payment processing apps like Google Wallet, as well as access to data share applications like Android Beam.

At 0.34 inches (8.6 mm) the handset is slim for a smartphone, and the display is as big as the Galaxy S III is skinny. The 4.8 inch multitouch, capacitive touchscreen is one of the largest you will find on any mobile handset, and pixel density runs to the high-end, at 316 pixels offered every inch. That display uses more than 16 million colors to create images, and overall screen resolution runs 720 x 1,280 pixels. Corning offers a second generation layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 2 to protect the screen against chipping and scratching, and a 1.5 GHz dual core processor powers the handset. A rear facing 8.0 megapixel camcorder offers video capture at 1,080P HD resolution.